CA: Judge Rules Against San Diego Sex Offender Ordinance

A federal judge ruled Wednesday a San Diego ordinance restricting where registered sex offenders can live violates state law.

U.S. District Judge Cynthia Bashant found the ordinance, one of the most restrictive of its kind in California, is preempted by state law and that the city has no authority to restrict the residency of sex offenders who are no longer on parole.

“San Diego’s ordinance, which provides residency restrictions on more people than only sex offenders on parole, enters a field fully occupied by state law and exceeds the scope of what is permitted by state law,” Bashant wrote.

The city passed the Child Protection Act in 2008 but has not enforced it since 2009 because of concerns that it violates sex offenders’ constitutional rights.

The ordinance prohibits sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of a “minor-oriented facility” such as a school, park or arcade. It applies to all people on the state’s sex offender registry, regardless of whether they were ever convicted of a crime involving a child, regardless of their crime’s severity and regardless of when it occurred. read more